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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

HAVANA,Cuba, Sept 26 (acn) On Monday afternoon, Cuban President Raul Castro received Joseph Kabila Kabange, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is on an official visit toCuba.

During the meeting, the two heads of state referred to the state of bilateral relations and reiterated their willingness to strengthen them in various fields. Likewise, they spoke about topics on the international agenda.

Also present in the talks were Esteban Lazo, Vice-president of the Council of State, and interim Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina.

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo said that he appreciated the support provided by Cuba during the second half of the last century to African national liberation movements. The president laid a wreath on the bust of his father Laurent-Désiré Kabila –also President of Congo (1997 to 2001)–, at theAfricanHeroesPark. He also paid tribute to the Congolese leader Patricio Lumumba and to all those who shed their blood during the African liberation wars and to Cuban national hero Jose Marti.

The president of the Cuba-Africa Association, Victor Dreke highlighted the friendship and brotherhood uniting the peoples ofCongoandCubaand mentioned the participation of Argentinean-born guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara in the national liberation war of the African country.

Havana,Cuba, Sept 27 (acn) The president of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of North Korea, Kim Jong Suk, explained today fromPyongyang that her country supports the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters, known as the Cuban Five, imprisoned in theU.S.

The official identified with the cause of the Cuban Five, who have been in prison since 1998, while signing a collaboration agreement with the Cuban Friendship Institute, ICAP. In 2001, the Cuban Five were sentenced to terms from 15 years in prison to two life terms plus 15 years, for monitoring terrorist groups acting againstCubaunderWashington’s consent.

As part of ICAP's work program, Serrano met with the vice president of the Presidium of the People’s Supreme Assembly, Yang Hyong Sop, who noted that the visit of the Cuban delegation coincides with preparations for the celebration of the centenary –in April 2010- of Kim Il Sung, historical leader of this country.

HAVANA, Cuba, Sept 26 (ACN) Representatives from several countries criticized on Monday the nearly 50-year-old economic, commercial and financial blockade maintained by the United States against Cuba at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Vice President of Uruguay, Danilo Astori, questioned the Cuban blockade and in his address to the Assembly he said that his government considers that all the conditions required for the UN to recognize Palestine as its 194th full member have been met.

Lesotho’s Prime Minister Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, advocated the lifting of theUSblockade againstCuba, arguing that a solution to the long-standing dispute between the US and Cuba should be found.

For 19 consecutive years the UN’s main decision-making body, has witnessed how an overwhelming majority of its member states rejects Washington’s blockade againstCuba.

Rodriguez told Walid Moallen all agreements signed between both countries during the historical visit of President Bashar al-Assad to Cuba last year have been fulfilled, the Official News Agency of Syrian and the national newspapers in Arab language Tishreen, Al Baas and Al-Thawra reported.

A press release on the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s websitewww.cubaminrex.cusays Rodriguez took advantage of the meeting to reaffirmCuba’s full support ofSyriaagainst any type of foreign intervention on its internal affairs.

HAVANA,Cuba, Sept 14 (acn) Cristina Vazquez, leader of the Workers United’s Western States Regional Joint Board inCalifornia, expressed the need for more action in favor of the release of the five Cuban antiterrorists incarcerated in theUSto be promoted.

The union leader explained, in statements to Prensa Latina that her organization, SEIU, formed in March 2009 after 150,000 workers in theU.S.andCanadadecided to leave UNITE HERE to create a union that put workers first, will be the voice of the Cuban people. Workers United represents workers in the laundry, food service, hospitality, gaming, apparel, textile, manufacturing and distribution industries. The union leader, born in Ecuador and living since 1971 in the US, has devoted her life to the defense of immigrants and workers and the reunification of families.

It’s we, the friends ofCuba, she said, who have the duty and the commitment to spread that the Cuban Five never tried to harm theUSnational security and their only objective was to protect their country from the plans of Florida-based criminal groups. According to the union member, a momentous meeting was held inLos Angeleson August 13, which was attended by members of that city’s progressive community.

The actions carried out inUSterritory in favor of The Five include the sending of postcards to US President Barack Obama demanding their release.

Regional Solidarity-with-Cuba Forum

HAVANA,Cuba, Sept 26 (acn) The 6th Regional Meeting of Solidarity with Cubato take place inMexicoin October is expected to be attended by approximately 1,000 delegates from 18 nations, announced its coordinator Roberto Hamilton.

Hamilton, from the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), assured via Internet that the forum will be a big political and cultural event.The opening of the meeting is scheduled for October6 in
honor of the victims of the sabotage of a Cubana de Aviacion commercial flight off theBarbadoscoasts in 1976, killing all 73 people aboard.

The second day of the encounter coincides with the end of Rene Gonzalez’s (one of the Cuban Five) term after 13 years in prison. On that day, the solidarity with Cuba movement will claim that Rene Gonzalez be allowed to return home in opposition to the additional sentence imposed on him of remaining in US territory under supervision for other three years.

Hamiltonadded that October 8 sessions will be dedicated to Ernesto Che Guevara and on the following day, the documents of the meeting will be announced. The event will wrap up with a march and a concert.

GUANTANAMO, Cuba, Sept 26 sep (AIN) A center dedicated to autistic children in Guantanamo. Roberto Soler, provincial deputy director for special education, said that this school will be the fourth of its kind on the island (Havana,Santiago de CubaandCienfuegos).

The center will have the technical equipment and the staff of professors, speech therapists, psycho-pedagogues and physical and emotional rehabilitation specialists required and will welcome the nine autistic children of the Guantanamo province, six of which currently receive attention in Havana. The director, Idania Padilla, underlined that the priority of the professionals involved is to increase the emotional and volitive well-being of the children affected.

A moving documentary by Estela Bravo, “Operation Peter Pan,” was aired on Cuban television showing the sinister actions carried out against Cuba. Produced in 2010 by Ernesto Brazo, Argentinian, was launched during the 32nd edition of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema and received a Star of Havana Award at the Havana Film Festival inNew York.

Operation Peter Pan…full of photographs and unedited scenes, reflects the tragic event that took place during the early years of the Revolution, 1960 to 1962, when more than 14 000 Cuban children were send to the United States by their parents after rumors that the Cuban government "would take away the rights of the parents over their children."

Images of many of the small children are shown in the documentary with music composed by Lucia Huergo, edition and the photography were vital elements in the sensible moments of the facts.

The separation from their parents marked the lives of these children, interviewed as adults by Estela Bravo, telling us about their bitterness, nostalgias and love for their cultural roots.

The massive departure of Cuban children was organized by the US State Department to destabilize the Cuban government. The testimonies of several of these children, today adults, are based on the experiences they lived.

The first group of Peter Pan children visitedCubain 2009 and filmmaker Estela Bravo, was able to obtain their emotional statements: “We have come to close a chapter of our lives, reconciliation and find peace for ourselves, with our history and our country”.

In the introduction of the book "Operation Peter Pan, a case of psychological war againstCuba" edited in 2000 by Editorial Politica Publishing House, the president of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon said: “Operation Peter Pan was one of the monstrous chapters in the endless campaign of lies, slanders and misdeed againstCuba. One of the most immoral and inhuman in history."

Caracas, Sep 27 (Prensa Latina) More than 31,000 Venezuelans have benefited from a health program that, supported by Cuba, has allowed since 2008 to prevent and assist patients with diabetic foot, President Hugo Chavez stated on Tuesday.

During a telephone conversation with the state TV channel Venezolana de Television, Chavez stated that about 14,000 amputations were prevented thanks to the application of Cuban medicine Heberprot-P, generally applied in people suffering from diabetes mellitus.

All this is for free, and as a result of that, some 15,500 patients have been assisted this year, the president said on the occasion of a book about the subject.

Chavez illustrated the achievements of the program implemented in 15 states with testimonies including in the text.

According to the medical literature, about 60 percent of those patients suffer from amputations, a figure reduced to less than one percent thanks to Heberprot-P and the work of Venezuelan and Cuban physicians. Now few people are taken to the operating room, said the project's national coordinator, Dr. Loida Gaffaro de Valera, we are saving families and society from trauma.

Heberprot-P was developed by the Cuban Genetic Engineering andBiotechnologyCenter and it is based on recombinant human growth factor and it is injected.